The One Show has apologised after Jeremy Clarkson suggested on air that strikers should be "executed in front of their families".

The provocative Top Gear presenter sparked a storm of outrage on Twitter after telling viewers of the BBC One programme that he would have striking public sector workers shot.

"I would have them taken outside and executed them in front of their families," he said.

He prefaced the remarks, however, by asserting that he liked the strikers as the industrial action meant there was no traffic on the roads. Adding that he had to be balanced as he worked for the BBC, he then launched into an anti-strikers rant, which appeared to be at least partly in jest.

Clarkson went on to shock viewers by saying trains should not stop for people who have committed suicide by throwing themselves onto the rails.

The corporation said in a statement: "The One Show apologised at the end of the show to viewers who may have been offended by Jeremy Clarkson's comments."